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My finished 3 color stranded sock

I thought I would post pics of the finished sock that I wrote about a few weeks back. Once again, the goal was to reproduce this antique sock as closely as possible, considering the materials on hand.

Seen in comparison, it is not bad. The size/gauge is pretty darn close. My white is way too bright. They use such tightly twisted single and double ply homespun wool( except for the commercial white cotton in the original) that it is still a little 'mysterious' how my very commercial, not tightly spun, yarn can come out at about the same gauge.

I am already on to a new 2 color sock( except for the ankle band which will be 3 color). Funny how much quicker it seems to go than the three colors.... I 'll post its picture in progress right after this post goes up

I look at this and think "Well done - amazing!" You've reproduced the originals beautifully. In respect to the white, I ask if you carried it proud in the knitting. It looks that way to me and that would explain much of its dominance (in addition to the brightness of the wool you're knitting with). If this is the case, I am sure that if you knitted the red and black proud you would see the white toned down significantly.

Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on. ~Billy Connolly

dominance('proud' as you call it(I've not heard that term yet!)) could have something to do with it but I am more convinced that it is the weight(thickness) of the yarn itself. In the original, it really is a difference, with the white being much thinner than the read and black. mine used equal weight for all three colors.

speaking of 'dominance' though, when i've done my own experiments, i don't see any difference in which color is carried over the other, whereas other people seem to get different results, with a distinct background and foreground field.

i only thought about this for 2 color work. i'll explore it more to see how it effects it - especially in 3 color work

Hi Demetri, We speak British English here! Yarn colour dominance is a big deal and the results can be starkly obvious. I knitted a slipover with about 11 colours in an intricate pattern. In the pattern there was an occasional row with a lavender colour as the accent but was to be knitted behind (non-dominant). On one row I knitted it proud accidentally but I didn't notice it until the garment was dressed and I put it on. That row stands out like a sore thumb because the lavender is prominent and it almost glows! Another example is the Brae waistcoat I just posted here. The pattern calls for the darker colours to be the background and kniited behind but because I wanted the warmth instead of the colour contrast, I knitted them proud. If you saw the difference between what I knitted and the photo for the pattern, you'd be amazed at the difference in overall appearance. In my experience, the thickness of the wool strand impacts the horizontal gauge but not the colour dominance. As for 3 strand/colour rows, I have only done that a couple of times but the dominance effect is as I've already described here.

Maybe you might try a swatch and see what happens. You most likely won't see it in the row but it should be obvious in the overall swatch. The more I look at your photos, the more it seems to me that its a dominance issue. But, I'm really only a knitting novice and no expert. I would be very interested to know if you do the swatch.

Never trust a man who, when left alone in a room with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on. ~Billy Connolly